“So if I asked you about art, you’d probably give me the skinny on every art book ever written. Michelangelo, you know a lot about him. Life’s work, political aspirations, him and the pope, sexual orientations, the whole works, right? But I’ll bet you can’t tell me what it smells like in the Sistine Chapel. You’ve never actually stood there and looked up at that beautiful ceiling; seen that. If I ask you about women, you’d probably give me a syllabus about your personal favorites. You may have even been laid a few times. But you can’t tell me what it feels like to wake up next to a woman and feel truly happy. You’re a tough kid. And I’d ask you about war, you’d probably throw Shakespeare at me, right, “once more unto the breach dear friends.” But you’ve never been near one. You’ve never held your best friend’s head in your lap, watch him gasp his last breath looking to you for help. I’d ask you about love, you’d probably quote me a sonnet. But you’ve never looked at a woman and been totally vulnerable. Known someone that could level you with her eyes, feeling like God put an angel on earth just for you. Who could rescue you from the depths of hell. And you wouldn’t know what it’s like to be her angel, to have that love for her, be there forever, through anything, through cancer. And you wouldn’t know about sleeping sitting up in the hospital room for two months, holding her hand, because the doctors could see in your eyes, that the terms “visiting hours” don’t apply to you. You don’t know about real loss, ’cause it only occurs when you’ve loved something more than you love yourself.”
-Robin Williams, Good Will Hunting
Why We Solve Problems
We can talk all day about how to solve problems, but perhaps an even more important question is why we solve problems. What’s the point? What makes this world worth fixing? This page is devoted to exploring that philosophical question.
We believe that love, art, and relationships are some of the many things that make life so rich.
Visual Art
Ever since we were young, both Dylan and I have been passionate about creating visual art. That is what led Dylan to become a professional motion graphics designer. I (Derek) partake in visual arts as a hobby, but I find it to be a very rewarding outlet.
Music
Music is my favorite art form. Playing music, listening to music, writing music, recording music… all of it.
I have been a musician ever since I was about 12 years old, when I convinced my parents to buy me a guitar. My parents don’t play instruments, so they expected it to be a waste of money, but for some reason I never put it down. Early on, I would get home from school and practice, using YouTube as my guide, for almost four hours a day, and often more. My brother, Dylan, got a bass guitar so we could start playing together. I was in bands from 6th grade, onward. When I got to high school, my brother and I joined the same band and got to play together for two years -that was a great time. We had a ton of fun recording and playing shows (picture is of me playing a behind-the-back solo at one of our shows).
I currently play guitar, piano, ukulele, and I can generally make music with any stringed instrument. No matter what is going on in life, I have always found that music can only help.
Astrophotography
In 2020, I got my first telescope (hard to believe for a lifelong space enthusiast, I know). I have been absolutely fascinated with it ever since I got it. It is very basic, but it is beyond fun to use. I love seeing the craters and mountains on the moon, the moons of Jupiter and the rings of Saturn. I currently just take images with my Iphone through the eye piece, but once I settle down a little more I plan to get a whole new rig that is built for astrophotography. I want to configure my telescope to image sun spots, and eventually get into photography of deep space objects, such as nebulae and galaxies.
Moon
The best object in the sky, plain and simple. I eagerly anticipate our return.
Saturn
It may not look like much, but this is Saturn. You can even see her beautiful rings; or as Galileo called them, her “ears”.
Jupiter
There are few things more exciting than seeing Jupiter and her four Galilean moons through a telescope. I can’t wait to get some better camera equipment to capture Jupiter’s stripes!
NEOWISE
I was incredibly fortunate to capture some very cool images of the comet, NEOWISE, through night vision goggles while flying at 35,000 feet over the Pacific. I loved looking at this beautiful comet through the telescope while it was here.
Reading and Writing
There are few things more enjoyable than getting lost in a book. The last book I read in a single sitting was “Dark Matter” by Blake Crouch. I couldn’t put it down! I also enjoy audiobooks. I generally have at least one audiobook I am listening to (usually non-fiction) and one book I am actually reading. There are so many books I could recommend, so I won’t do that here to save space. I love science fiction, anything space (obviously), science, engineering, physics, biology, neuroscience, fantasy, and just about every other nerdy genre.
I also love to write. I have kept a daily journal since my freshman year in college. I have started writing for a public audience to share my thoughts, but also to sharpen my writing skills. Writing publicly is very different than writing privately, but it is a very useful skill.